Family Affair
by Dani Pink Cloud
Summary: Castle challenges Beckett to a bet . . . Too bad she has to resort to extremes to win. One-shot. Warning: totally OOC.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Castle.**** I don't even watch Castle. This is fully based off of what I hear from my friends riding in the car to school every morning. It will be totally OOC and probably weird too, but too bad. This is my warning. If you don't want to read something like that, then DON'T READ IT. Thanks.**

"So," Castle asked awkwardly. "What are you doing tomorrow?" The only conversation starter he could think of _would _turn out to be the most awkward as well. He mentally slammed his face on his desk.

Kate Beckett looked at him with an expression that was a strange mixture of confusion and smugness. "I have a date, actually," she replied coolly.

"Oh. Um. Cool." Failfailfailfail, Rick Castle's mind shouted at him. "With whom? What is this, a date with destiny?" he tried to joke. But Beckett didn't look very joking right now.

"What, you think I can't get a date?" she asked him sharply.

"So it is a date with destiny!"

She glared at him. Castle ducked his head to hide his smirk. "Kind of. I have to meet this guy."

"A guy as in a boyfriend, or a guy as in a potential serial killer who you may or may not be forced to kill?" Castle asked. Somehow, he had the feeling it was the latter. This conversation was getting less and less awkward for him by the minute.

Unfortunately, it was getting more and more awkward for Beckett. "The second one," she muttered. "Only he's not a serial killer. Just a rapist. Potentially."

"Oh, yeah, just a rapist. Kate, I want to come on this date," Castle added, defensive of Beckett all of a sudden.

Beckett snorted. "Yeah, that would work out real well. Nope. You're not coming. Anyway, it's late. I'm going home. See you tomorrow, Castle. And don't call me Kate." She gathered up a few folders and started to walk out of the office.

Castle watched her walking out of the office. Just before the door slammed shut behind her, he jumped up from his chair, yelling, "Kate!"

She turned around smoothly, stopping the door from closing as she did so. "What did I just say?" she asked coldly. She was annoyed with Castle, but, being a guy, he couldn't seem to pick up on that.

"You said you think that I think that you can't get a date," Castle said in a rush.

"I thought you were an author?"

"What?"

"You're an author, right? So why can you not speak clearly?" Beckett wondered out loud. Castle wanted to hit her right then. But you can't hit a girl.

"You know what I meant," Castle muttered, annoyed.

"Sure. Well, yeah, I did say that. Who cares?"

"I do. Because guess what? I think you can't." Castle's plan was unfolding perfectly. He wanted to grin evilly, but he suppressed the urge the same way that he suppressed so many others.

"Can't what?"

"Can't get a date." That would hit home. Castle knew it.

Beckett was silent for a moment. "Really," she said dangerously softly. "Wanna bet?"

"Sure. But it has to be within the next . . . oh, two days," Castle added, just to make the challenge that much harder. "How much?" Castle said, a mischievous look on his face.

"Money? No. If I can get a date within the next two days, then you have to stop following me around all the time. For a month." She smiled smugly.

This was not going the way Castle wanted. "A week," he offered quickly.

"Three weeks."

"One week."

"Two weeks."

Silence. Then, "Fine. Two weeks. But if you can't, if you lose the bet, then you have to come with me on a date instead." Now it was Castle's turn to smile smugly.

Beckett frowned slightly, but instead of resisting, she just said, "Deal." She shook hands firmly with Castle. "Well," she said, "good night."

"Good night, Beckett," Castle said, waving as she walked out the door.

Then the door slammed behind her, and Castle was left alone in the dark office with only his desk light on as he sat back in his chair. He had a date with Kate Beckett.

* * *

"Josh?" Kate Beckett said into her cell phone as she buckled herself into her car.

"Yeah?" a male voice answered.

"Will you go on a date with me tomorrow night?"

The line seemed to go dead for a moment. Josh was silent. "Kate . . ."

"Look, Josh, please? It's not what you think. I'll explain later. Please, Josh?" Beckett begged.

If she could have seen him live, Beckett was certain he was doing that annoying, condescending head-shaking thing she hated. But Josh said, "Okay, fine. I'll go with you. But you owe me an explanation."

"Okay, just meet me at my office tomorrow," Beckett offered.

"Fine," Josh repeated.

Then the line went dead. Beckett hit the end button on her iPhone, then set it down in its special place in her car. She started up the car happily. Rick Castle would be off her back for two whole weeks.

* * *

The next morning, Castle walked into the office humming. He couldn't wait to see Beckett and know that her first day of the bet had failed. He turned into Beckett's office, a smug smile on his face.

But it faded almost instantly when Castle saw another man sitting on the other side of Beckett's desk as if she were questioning him. Unfortunately, she wasn't questioning him, and Castle didn't recognize him . . . had she really gotten a date? Was Castle going to have to work on his own, at home, without Beckett, for two whole weeks? He panicked inside.

But on the outside he just said, "Morning, Beckett." He dropped his briefcase – which looked rather professional but only held a laptop and a notebook – on her desk unceremoniously.

"Good morning, Castle," she answered cordially, standing up. "I'd like you to meet Josh." She gave Josh a pointed glance that Castle could not understand. It's hard to understand something you don't notice because you happen to be busy staring at the love of your life's potential boyfriend.

"Hi," Josh was saying with a friendly smile. He stood up and offered his hand. Castle pretended not to notice.

"Hello," he said simply.

"Josh, this is Rick Castle," Beckett introduced him.

"Rick Castle? The author? Wow, Kate, you didn't tell me you worked with him! Mr. Castle, your books – they're amazing –"

"Just call me Rick," Castle interrupted.

"Oh. Sure. Okay. But seriously, I love your books –"

"That's nice. I'm glad to hear that somebody likes them," Castle said curtly.

Beckett cut in. "Anyway, as I was saying," she said loudly, "Castle, this is Josh, my boyfriend." She moved to his side so she could wrap her arm around his shoulders, smiling. The smile was smug, and Castle knew that she knew she'd won the bet. But she would never mention it in front of Josh . . .

Exactly. She would never mention it; she wouldn't want him to know. Castle still had time to sabotage her little plan.

"Your boyfriend, eh?" he asked casually. "Cool."

"Yes," Beckett smiled. "We're going to lunch this afternoon; I'll have to leave early."

"This afternoon? Well, good job. You won the bet," Castle said offhandedly.

"The bet? What bet?" Josh pulled away from Beckett and looked at her, confused.

Before Beckett could come up with an acceptable answer, though, Castle answered his question. "Beckett and I made a bet last night that she couldn't get a date within the next two days." He shrugged. "Looks like she won, though."

"So this was just a favor I'm doing you?" Josh asked Beckett angrily. Castle looked on, wondering where he could find some popcorn. This should be good.

"Well – yeah," Beckett answered with nothing else to say.

"Jeez, Kate, this was messed up enough –" Josh started. But Beckett jumped. She made a face at Josh that Castle couldn't read – even though he saw it this time.

"Messed up?" he asked.

Beckett groaned. Josh looked at her apologetically.

"I asked a question," Castle snapped.

"Yeah," Beckett said, even though that didn't answer anything.

"Dammit, Beckett, what is he talking about?" Castle demanded, angrily gesturing at Josh.

Beckett sighed and muttered something under her breath. "Josh . . ." she began. "Well, he's not really my boyfriend."

"Yeah, you could say that," the not-boyfriend in question muttered. Castle shot him a glare.

Before Castle could ask again – ask being a nice way of saying what he wanted to do – Beckett blurted out, "Josh is my brother."

Castle stared at her. He glanced between the two about five kajillion times in the awkward moment of silence, and then burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Beckett wanted to know.

Castle was too busy laughing hysterically to answer. He just shook his head.

"Honestly!" Beckett sighed loudly. "Men are so weird."

"Does that include brothers?" Josh asked.

"Oh that's right, you're here," Beckett reminded herself. "I guess I'd better take you home, huh?"

"Yeah, I took a bus here. I don't have a car right now," he admitted.

"Whaddaya mean you don't have a car? I thought . . ." Beckett exclaimed, trailing off as the pair of them left the office and the laughing Castle.

At the last second Castle managed to yell, "Beckett! You've still got till tomorrow night!"

"So I won the bet," Castle grinned.

Beckett took the seat the waiter was offering her and looked back at Castle, an unexpressive smile on her face. "Yep."

"You know I didn't really think –"

"Of course."

"So why didn't you win? You know you could have," Castle pointed out.

Beckett kept that smile on her face and cocked her head to the side. "Maybe I didn't want to win."

What was that supposed to mean? Castle wondered. Women. They just couldn't say what they meant, could they.

"Why were you laughing?" Beckett was asking Castle as he pondered over the wonders of the female mind. "When I told you Josh was my brother, I mean. Do we look that much different? I mean – that was bad grammar –"

"No, I know what you mean," Castle waved it off, even though his inner editor was dying from restraint of correcting the grammar error. "Well, um, no."

"So why were you laughing?" Beckett asked, leaning in. Now her smile was real. It was the one Castle liked, the one he wished would stay on her face forever.

"You really wanna know?"

"Yeah."

"I thought he was –" Castle laughed himself at the idea. "I thought he was a man whore that you hired to be your boyfriend for a day. So you could win the bet."

Beckett stared at Castle with a mix of laughter and confusion in her eyes. Then she burst out laughing. Castle followed suit, and soon Kate Beckett and Rick Castle were laughing together over their first dinner date.

**A/N: Teehee. I hope my attempt at writing fanfiction for an unknown fandom worked out okay. Yes, yes, I'm weird. Review please!**

**EDITED due to a review from MidnightIndigo.**


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